Capacity Building Program for Young Australian Indigenous Advocates (Australia, 10th-15th February 2008)

The Diplomacy Training Program (DTP) hosted and facilitated a special capacity building program for young Indigenous Australian advocates from 10th-15th February 2008. The program aimed to provide the participants with information and knowledge of international human rights standards and the UN system, to explore the relevance of these standards to the issues they are concerned with, and to assist them in building their advocacy skills. The program was made possible through the funding and support of Oxfam Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ Program/ATSIP Proram. The curriculum and program was developed in partnership with Oxfam Australia.

This course was held during a time of increasing awareness of the challenges facing Indigenous Australians, but also at a time of great opportunity with a change of national government, and the building momentum of the “Close the Gap” campaign on Indigenous health. During the program Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered the historic National Apology to Indigenous Australians and to the Stolen Generations.

This capacity building program brought together 27 young Indigenous Australians from around the country. Participants were selected through Oxfam Australia’s Indigenous Australian Youth Participation Program and also through DTP’s Indigenous networks.Participants came from organisations and communities across Australia—from Mornington Island to Melbourne, Cape York to Alice Springs and Palm Island to Sydney.

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we work, the Bedegal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to the Elders – past, present and emerging – and the youth who are working towards a brighter tomorrow.